FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT RANCH STYLE HOUSE - PAGE 2

A house is slated for demolition May 25 to make way for Palatine's fifth permanent fire station, to be built at Palatine and Williams Roads, officials said. Village officials held a groundbreaking Monday night for the $1.9 million project. About $1 million of the funding comes from a state grant. The ranch-style house is used as a temporary fire station to reduce emergency response times to the northeast area of the village. It has quarters for two firefighters who use a sport-utility vehicle to respond to calls until ambulance and trucks from other stations arrive.

An Ingleside man died of multiple traumatic injuries over the weekend after his car struck a house in an unincorporated area west of town, a spokesman for the Lake County Coroner's Office said Monday. Lawrence Holt, 40, of 35018 N. Knollwood Ave. was southbound on Illinois Highway 59 Friday evening when his compact car struck another vehicle as it was turning into a private driveway, said Lake County Deputy Sheriff Robert Bell. Holt's car bounced off the other car, crossed the road, cut across a front yard and slammed into the side of a ranch-style house at 39319 N. Illinois Highway 59, Bell said.

A 15-room, ranch-style house in River Forest that once was owned by the late Chicago mob boss Anthony J. Accardo has sold for $1.2 million. Charles V. Doherty of Chicago bought the home from a bank trust, which listed it last fall for $1.4 million. Accardo, who never served more than 24 hours behind bars despite a lifelong career as the reputed leader of Chicago's organized crime syndicate, died in 1992 at age 86. He lived in this house, one of two he once owned on Ashland Avenue, from 1964 until 1979.

Chicago police on Saturday were seeking to explain why a lawyer apparently beat, stabbed and strangled his mother, then was found dead outside their South Side home early Friday morning. Daniel Buckley, 37, had shared the home in the 500 block of East 86th Place with his elderly parents. The cause of his death has not been determined, although police said he suffered stab wounds and cuts from an apparent fall or jump from a window at the ranch-style house. Police said Buckley's 83-year-old father escaped the attack by breaking a bedroom window and fleeing the house.

The four-bedroom, raised ranch-style house in west suburban Glendale Heights where Smashing Pumpkins founder and frontman Billy Corgan spent much of his preteen and teenage years has been listed for $175,000. One of the most successful rockers ever to come out of the Chicago area, Corgan, 47, now lives in a massive vintage mansion on Lake Michigan in Highland Park. But for close to a decade -- from 1977 until he graduated from Glenbard North High School in Carol Stream in 1985 -- Corgan hung his hat in his family's 1,531-square-foot house in Glendale Heights.

"When we got there, fire was blowing out the back of the house," said Westmont Fire Chief Frank Trout, recalling the December afternoon when a hazel-eyed, 8-year-old girl became a hero to her mother and sister. Paula Barclay should have been napping when a fire broke out in the furnace room of their ranch-style house on South Washington Street, said her mother, Carol. "Apparently Paula was awake and smelled the smoke," she said. "She woke me up, and I thought it smelled like a crayon left on a heat vent."

The death of an 89-year-old woman who was in her Crest Hill home when it burned down Sunday morning is suspicious, authorities said. Dorothy Dumyahn, of the 2300 block of Caton Farm Road in Crest Hill, was the victim of an apparent homicide, the Will County coroner's office said today. Dumyahn was pronounced dead at 9:30 a.m. Sunday at her home, according to the coroner's office. The official cause and manner of her death will be determined pending the final outcome of an autopsy, toxicological and police reports, according to the coroner's office.

Authorities are continuing to investigate the death of an 89-year-old Crest Hill woman who they say was killed before her home went up in flames over the weekend. Firefighters found Dorothy Dumyahn dead in her burning home Sunday. Crest Hill Deputy police Chief Ed Clark said the case is being investigated as a homicide after an autopsy Monday. He said the fire was set to cover up the killing. The one-story home in the 2300 block of Caton Farm Road still smelled of ash Tuesday afternoon.

Charges are pending against a 48-year-old man suspected of killing an 89-year-old woman in her Crest Hill home and then setting a fire to hide the crime, officials said Thursday. Firefighters found Dorothy Dumyahn, of the 2300 block of Caton Farm Road, dead in her burning one-story home Sunday. Crest Hill police said the case was being investigated as a homicide after an autopsy Monday determined the woman had been killed before she was discovered in the fire. The Will County coroner's office said the official cause of death will be determined pending the final outcome of an autopsy and toxicological and police reports.

Buffered from busy Palatine Road by a brick fence, the Enclave is a 22-acre development in northwest suburban Arlington Heights that offers homeowners privacy paired with condominium ownership. Employing the cluster-housing concept, the development consists of 106 single-family free-standing houses arranged on cul-de-sacs. A homeowners association provides exterior maintenance for a monthly fee of about $105. "The reason condominium ownership is becoming so popular is that the population is aging," said Richard Van Schaardenburg, president of Town and Country Homes, the developer.